Budapest attraktioner

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The Danube River is the frame of all the best Budapest views, the dividing line that gives the city its dual character, and the second longest river in Europe.
If it weren't for the Danube River, Budapest wouldn't have its famous series of bridges, including the Széchenyi Chain Bridge, adorned by lions, and the Liberty Bridge, adorned by turuls.
And if it weren't for the Danube, there would be no Margaret Island, one of the city's most beloved sites for summer picnics and music festivals.
Beyond Budapest, the river curls into a series of highly picturesque curves, winding its way past a series of towns popular as trips from the capital. There's Esztergom with its religious history and impressive basilica, Viségrad with its hilltop castle, and Szentendre and Vác with their Southern European appeal.

The lemon-and-white Neo-Baroque confection of the Széchenyi Baths is the perfect place for a palatial soak. It was built in 1883 - in those days it was known as the Artesian Baths - and was the first bath house in Pest, the more industrial and working class side of the city. It was converted into a permanent site in 1913, and received various additions, including a hospital. In the late 1990s it was thoroughly renovated.
The pools are the deepest and hottest in the city. Inside you'll find swimming pools, thermal sitting pools, saunas, masseurs and the 'fancy pool' with its artificial waves and massage jets. There are some segregated areas but for most of the pools you'll need a bathing suit. Outside there are warm swimming pools that, even in winter, make a delightful place to look at the sky, revel in the warmth and watch old men playing chess in the water.

Not many cities can boast a Parliament Building this photogenic. Sitting on the banks of the Danube, built in a grand Neo-Gothic style, this is Parliament done palatially.
The idea for the construction of the Budapest Parliament House - or Orszaghaz - came in 1873 when the three cities that made up Budapest were united. A competition was held and won by Imre Steindl. His design mixed Gothic, Medieval and Baroque elements with a lavish hand. The building was not finished until 1902, by which time Steindl was blind.
The grand building contains many items of interest, including frescoes; the Hungarian Coronation Regalia with its Renaissance sword; mythical eagles and an impressive staircase.

Margit-sziget (Margaret Island) is a magical little piece of heaven poised between Buda and Pest. Being there always gives you the sense of taking some time off from the real world. It's small - only 2.5 km (1.4 mi) long - but you'd be surprised how much the island manages to pack in and still feel like an oasis.
Margaret Island was once three islands; they were put together to stem the flow of the Danube in the 19th century. In the middle ages, Margaret Island was called the Island of Rabbits. It was named Margaret after a saint who lived in one of the many nunneries.
The Ottoman rulers kicked out the monks and nuns and took over the island for their harems. There's still plenty of lolling about and pleasure seeking to be done on the island today. It has a pool and lido, a thermal spa, concerts and a Japanese garden to help you relax.

The grandiose pile of the Királyi Palota (the Royal Palace) is the Phoenix of Budapest - it's been burnt to the ground and rebuilt countless times, and was almost gone in WWII. But these days, looking at the magnificent stone edifice and haughty dome, it's hard to believe it was ever in jeopardy.
Three of Budapest's premier museums are housed in the Royal Palace. The Hungarian National Gallery has rooms of paintings by Hungarian artists ranging from medieval times through to the 20th century. The Budapest History Museum is famed for its Gothic rooms and statues, unearthed in the 1960s during a renovation of the castle. The National Library holds a collection of all Hungarian works.
The gardens offer sweeping views down Castle Hill, and various statues. Follow the groups of tourists to the Matthias Well, a Romantic extravaganza of a fountain with the figure of the young King Matthias as a hunter with his stag, and his beautiful beloved with her doe.

Gellért Hill is one of Budapest's most romantic nights out. Just grab a bottle of the city's famous red wine, a couple of glasses, and your beloved. It might be a bit of a trek up there, but the view of twinkling lights will amply reward you.
The views you'll see over the Danube are best seen from the Citadel, built by the Austrians after their victory over the Hungarians in the 19th century. In fact, the monuments on Gellért Hill all have a somewhat painful history.
The girl posing with the palm of victory symbolizes the Russian liberation of the city after WWII, but as the liberation turned into an occupation, its presence has been disputed.
And Gellért himself? A martyred saint whose efforts at conversion ended with him being killed by angry pagans in a nail-filled barrel rolled down the hill (ouch!). He's commemorated by an immense statue.

The Central Market Hall is the largest indoor market in Budapest, Hungary. The ornate building is more than 100 years old and has three stories filled with stalls. The roof is still original and is covered in colorful Zsolnay tiles. There are four other markets in Budapest that were built in the same style with similar roofs, and all five opened on February 15, 1897.
The market hall is frequently visited by tourists, though many locals shop here on a regular basis as well. There are stalls selling fruits and vegetables, Hungarian meats, fish, local cheeses, Hungarian herbs and spices, Hungarian wines and spirits, clothing, purses, accessories, and souvenirs. There are also a few restaurants where you can try local dishes such as lángos, which is yeast-based dough deep fried in oil and topped with different things like sour cream, cheese, and garlic. The Central Market Hall often holds special events featuring the cuisine of foreign countries.

Castle Hill is Budapest's most spectacular - and most visited - district. In one small area you have most of the city's big-hitter attractions, including the Royal Palace with its museums and library, the Matthias Church, the Fisherman's Bastion and several spectacular statues. The views over the Danube to Pest are incomparable and worth the trip alone.
Castle Hill has been settled since the 13th century, and you can still feel the scale of the medieval in its steep twisting streets and little square. It's watched over by a magnificent golden turul - the mythical eagle that is featured in Hungarian mythology. As you come up by funicular, the turul is practically the first thing you see.
The Royal Palace also has its fair share of fantastical statues, including a fountain featuring the young King Matthias posing as a hunter. The palace contains the Budapest History Museum and the National Art Gallery as well as the National Library.

Rising 140 m (460 ft) over the western flank of the River Danube, Gellért Hill is riddled with underground cave complexes and around 130 hot springs, which feed Budapest’s famous spa baths. Formed in karstic limestone, the springs have therapeutic properties and provide 70 million liters (18.5 million gallons) of hot, calcium-rich water – temperature ranges between 70°F (21°C) and 168°F (76°C) – daily to power the seven major spa complexes in the city.
Of these, the elegant, Art Nouveau-cum-Secessionist-style Gellért Thermal Bath and Spa opened in 1918; behind its undulating exterior is a confection of magical, turquoise-and-gold, mosaic-ed saunas, steam rooms and colonnaded indoor and outdoor pools. As well as a series of plunge pools and mineral baths of differing temperatures, there’s a wave pool on the roof and a panoramic terrace for sunbathing and al fresco lunching in summer.

This beautiful neo-classical cathedral is the biggest church in Budapest and sits on the imposing square of Szent István. Its serene façade is decorated with statues of the 12 Apostles and has twin clock towers, a vast cupola and an imposing colonnaded doorway leading on to a barn-like interior illuminated through jewel-like stained-glass windows.
Among the carved wooden pews, marble statuary, frescoed ceilings and gilded ornamentation, the opulent basilica’s most holy relic is found in the small dark chapel to the left of the elaborate main altar. The mummified and bejeweled hand of St Stephen, who was both first king and patron saint of Hungary back in the ninth century, lies preserved in a delicate glass cabinet.
The basilica can accommodate 8,500 worshippers and was built during the late 19th century during the expansion of Budapest for the Millennium celebrations. Much of the later design work was by Miklós Ybl, designer of the Hungarian State Opera House.

The Danube Palace is a frothy Neo-Baroque concert hall completed in 1885 as part of Budapest’s massive expansion for the millennium celebrations. Hungary was a thousand years old in 1896 and the Habsburg Emperor Franz Joseph I was determined to create a prestigious city that reflected its ancient standing.
The ornate auditorium is decorated with a liberal sprinkling of cherubim and frescoes of pastoral scenes. Following the Communist takeover of Hungary after WWII much of the original décor was destroyed but this has since been reinstated; the only remaining sign of Soviet occupation is a stained-glass window near the restaurant that depicts happy peasants frolicking with the flags of Hungary and the Soviet Union.

Sitting high on Castle Hill on the Buda side of the Danube River, Fisherman’s Bastion was built in 1905 as part of the ongoing celebrations of the thousand-years existence of the Hungarian state. It encompasses part of the original fortified castle walls and its terraces boast the best view points over the river and across to Pest. The bastion is a step away from several of Budapest’s big-hitting attractions, including the Royal Palace with its museums and library, Matthias Church and the Hungarian National Gallery.
Festooned with Neo-Romanesque lookout towers, equestrian statues, turrets and colonnades, the T-shaped bastion has two levels and wraps itself around Matthias Church. Architect Frigyes Schulek revamped the church and designed the bastion at the same time. The wide steps leading up to the bastion are scattered with neo-Gothic statuary and provide an impressive introduction to Castle Hill.

Budapest’s Chain Bridge was the city’s first – and is still its most famous – crossing of the Danube, connecting Baroque Buda on the western river bank with the wide boulevards of Pest on the east. Opened in 1849, the bridge is 375 meters long and 16 meters wide; it is made of made of stone slabs and suspended in place by two massive linked iron chains. Originally a toll bridge, it was designed by English engineer Alan Clark, who also had a hand in Hammersmith Bridge across the River Thames in London. The stone lions guarding both ends of the Chain Bridge were carved by János Marschalkó and added in 1852.
From the Buda side of the Chain Bridge a road tunnel leads northwards underneath Castle Hill; as the bridge united the east and west sides of the city it was indirectly responsible for Budapest’s rapid flowering as a major metropolis in the late 19th century.

The elegant boulevard of Andrássy Avenue was completed in 1885 as part of the expansion of Budapest under Emperor Franz Joseph I to celebrate the thousand-year anniversary of the state of Hungary. It connects the Pest-side city center at Erzsébet Square to the City Park (Városliget) and as a masterpiece of urban planning was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2002, along with Heroes’ Square.
Elegant townhouses lined the avenue and it became the preserve of wealthy bankers and the aristocracy. In order to conserve Andrássy’s architectural harmony, the city fathers decided to build a train line underneath the avenue. And so the Millennium Underground Railway opened, the first in continental Europe; it was first used to transport people from the city center to Városliget, which was the focus of the millennium celebrations in 1896.

Dohány Street Synagogue is the largest functioning synagogue in Europe, and one of the largest in the world, so it deserves its other title, the Grand Synagogue. Why else is it grand? The scale is matched by its decoration - the synagogue has a Byzantine feel, with gleaming onion domes and eight-pointed stars chased into the exterior walls.
The rose windows and the organ may put you in mind of a Christian church (the organ and the acoustics of the grand space make the synagogue a popular spot for concerts). But the towers that top the building - and that are meant to echo the pillars of Solomon's palace - remind you where you are. The synagogue was built on the boundaries of the Jewish Ghetto, where the Jews of the city retreated when they were banished from the city walls in the 18th century. The synagogue also played a part in the dreadful happenings of WWII, when it served as a shelter for the city's Jews, many of whom died here in the winter of 1944 - 45.

Matthias Church, with the bright color of its tiled roof and its fantastic Neo-Gothic ornamentation, is one of the stand-out attractions of Castle Hill. Most of it dates from the late 19th century, but parts of the church are much older than that. It's named the Matthias Church because King Matthias I married Beatrice of Naples here in 1474.
It was here, in 1867, that Franz Liszt's Coronation Mass was first performed, and the church still has a strong musical tradition; try and catch a concert here if you can.
On the exterior of the church, check out the unusual diamond-patterned tiles of the roof and the Matthias Tower, which bears the king's crest animal, a raven with a gold ring in its beak. Also look out for the medieval columns on the bottom of the Béla Tower, with their studious monks and devilish animals.
Inside the church you'll find rich frescoes and a legendary Madonna statue - this Virgin is said to have saved the Castle from Turkish invasion when her face.

Budapest’s main opera house is a lavish neo-Renaissance confection with an interior so ornate that it could only have been built at the height of the wealthy Austro-Hungarian Empire. The opera house was designed by the Hungarian architect Mikós Ybl, while the Baroque ornamentation, sweeping marble staircases, the frescoed ceilings, vast chandeliers, rich velvets and gilded tiers of seats in the auditorium were mainly contributed by Károly Lotz and Bertalan Székely. It opened with great fanfare on September 27, 1884, in the presence of the Habsburg Emperor Franz Joseph I and in time for the Millennium celebrations of 1896.
Gustave Mahler was director at the opera house between 1887-1891 and its reputation as one the world’s leading cultural houses was cemented. After decades of riding high on the international stage, the proud opera house fell into disrepair under the Communist regime in the 1970s.

Stretching from the Chain Bridge to the Elisabeth Bridge on the Pest side of the Danube, the Danube Promenade is a favorite among tourists and locals alike. In the early twentieth century, this stretch was home to famous hotels such as the Ritz, the Bristol and the Carlton. Today, new luxury hotels like the InterContinental and the Sofitel line the Promenade, together with other prominent buildings and attractions.
Near the Chain Bridge, you will find the neo-Renaissance Hungarian Academy of Sciences building, opened in 1865. On the same square is the art nouveau Gresham Palace and a statue of Count Istvan Szechenyi, a 19th century Hungarian politician and writer who encouraged the founding of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and promoted political reform.

Rising 140 meters on the west side of the Danube, Gellért Hill is crowned with the fortified hulk of Citadella, which provides one of the best viewpoints in Budapest. From the ramparts there are far-reaching panoramas north to Buda Castle, and down the river to Széchenyi Chain Bridge, St Stephen’s Basilica and the Parliament House. Constructed by occupying Austrian forces in the 1840s, the citadel was loathed by the Hungarians, who tore down its fortified gates when the Austrians eventually left the city in 1897. Its 60 canon placements still remain, as do the six-meter ‘U’-shaped walls of the fort.
During World War II an air raid shelter was built in the Citadella, and this now houses a small museum about the war. In 1956, Soviet troops suppressed the Hungarian rebellion against Communism by firing heavy artillery from the fortress and Russian artillery is still scattered around the complex.

At the entrance to Budapest's City Park, Heroes' Square (or Hősök tere) features an impressive semi-circular sweep of columns and statues and a cenotaph honoring the fallen of the 1956 uprising. On either side of the square are the Museum of Fine Art and the Exhibition Hall, which now shows contemporary art.
At the peak of the semi-circle is a statue of the Angel Gabriel bestowing the Hungarian Crown on St. Stephen. Lower down is a rugged band of chieftans on horses with antler bridles - this is Árpád and other leaders from an early Magyar civilization. Other statues represent various leaders and statesman as well as abstract values like war and peace.

Built in the late 1800s, Budai Vigado was constructed with the intention of being both theater and library—a single building meant to meet the cultural needs and desires of local Hungarians. While the outside of this massive stately structure appears relatively unassuming, visitors agree that its impressive inside is worth exploring. Marble staircases, stone pillars and an incredible 301-seat theater give Budai Vigado a truly art nouveau flavor. The Hungarian State Folk Ensemble plays on this theater stage more than 100 times each year and travelers say catching a performance is a quintessential Budapest experience.

The colossal Vajdahunyad Castle sits next to the boating lake amid the greenery of City Park (Városliget) and displays a joyous clash of Hungarian architectural styles. It was designed by Ignác Alpár to be a gigantic folly for the Hungarian millennium celebrations in 1896, but it was such a hit with the citizens of Budapest that it was granted a reprieve and its makeshift construction was rebuilt in stone.
Running the gamut of Romanesque to Renaissance architecture, the palace is gaily encrusted with towers, turrets, Gothic flying buttresses, portcullises, bridges and courtyards, happily borrowing features from other castles around Hungary and there are scores of neo-classical statues scattered in the grounds.
Today Budapest’s Agricultural Museum is housed among the marble stairs, ornate décor, stained glass and vast chandeliers of the palace interior.

Váci utca (utca simply means 'street') is Budapest's most upmarket shopping precinct. Once upon a time it was all about the antique shops and was famous for its bookstores; nowadays it's more about high-end designer fashion and European chain stores, and you'll struggle to find a bargain here.
For the traveler - at least those that don't want to join their fellow visitors in the hunt for just one more Zara dress or an overpriced meal in one of the many tourist-trap restaurants - the main pleasure of strolling Váci utca is the street's polished good looks and architecture. Window-shop and people-watch your way down the (pedestrian) street, which opens into squares, and take in ceramic reliefs, stained glass and Art Nouveau interiors.

Founded in 1802, the Hungarian National Museum is the oldest public museum in Hungary and is home to the most important collection of historical artifacts in the country. It is also became an important symbol of Hungary’s national identity when the Hungarian Revolution of 1848 was launched after a reading on the museum’s front steps. For a time, the upper house of the Hungarian Parliament also met in the building.
The neo-Classical building housing the museum was built between 1837 and 1847 and today features seven permanent displays. Two sections provide an overview of Hungary’s history, while another focuses on modern history beginning with the Rakocizi War of Independence in the early 1700s. Yet another chronicles the rise and fall of Communism in Hungary. On the ground floor of the museum, you can find a collection of medieval and early modern stone carvings, while in the basement, ancient Roman stone inscriptions and carvings are on display.